[Michael Gissing]

Perhaps you might set the aspect to match the footage. Then on the color page set your output blanking to match the portrait aspect on a timeline node. That way you will also be able to set your framing within the portrait frame you intend to output. But when you select a shot you will see the whole frame on the preview monitor.

After the edit, when you go to output, duplicate the timeline and change the output aspect to portrait and turn off the timeline node on the color page

[Michael Gissing]

When moving clips on the edit page you should get to know what the CTRL, ALT and SHIFT keys do. As modifiers they enable a variety of ways to move, extend, copy etc clips. I’m sure Mr Alex Tech has some good YouTube tutorials on how these modifiers should be used individually and together. There are a lot of options on how you move, trim etc.

It is also possible to lock tracks to prevent audio moving while moving or deleting video tracks without unlinking. On the Fairlight page, you can move audio tracks around without affecting the video tracks so it is like an automatic locking of video tracks when working on audio. I prefer to use that page to extend, edit and move around audio, knowing my video tracks will not move around.

As for re-programing keyboard functionality, the keyboard editor allows you to create custom key commands and assign them to any key.

[Michael Gissing]

Resolve has always used a database system to store project files. Individual projects and timelines can be exported which appear as .drp and .drt files. This is how I backup work in progress. You can also backup databases which is a good idea to do before going to a new software release as you will find a new software version will update your database which means you cannot go back to an older version of software with that database. This is nothing to do with beta versions as that is just how BM release new versions of their software. What you must have done is try to use an older version of Studio software with the updated database. It is always a forward progression with limits on backwards compatibility regardless of software. Pr, FCPX and others work the same way.

There is both advantages and disadvantages with the database approach that BM take. One big advantage is being able to group projects into a single database so that they all can be backed up at once. No searching through folders and files on multiple drives looking for projects to backup.

[Michael Gissing]

I don’t use AE or Mocha so I can’t compare. Everything has a steep learning curve if you are unfamiliar and the software is powerful. I’ve been using Resolve since version 8 and this would be as easy to me as anyone with experience and skill on their chosen software. So best advice is to use what you have access and experience with. We haven’t mentioned Fusion which is also another option within the Resolve suite.

I always recommend people try Resolve. After all the free version is able to do so much and the paid version is a once only cheap option.

[Michael Gissing]

The important thing is how to make the images look good and be broadcast compliant. Worry less about the waveform as that is just a tool for compliance to troubleshoot. Without seeing the image it looks like there are some very bright spectral highlights in your otherwise dark image. Increase gain and gamma with the color wheels or try pushing up brightness with curves. You can trim back the highlights or let them clip, depending on what it looks like. Highlight trimming can be done with curves, the highlight adjustment on the color wheels or the HDR color tool. The tech reject might talk about Mv and IRE levels but in the end it is what the image looks like. Resolve will clip to broadcast spec

[Michael Gissing]

The grade tool in Resolve can often make a good matte based using the HSL picker and then changing the color. It can also do a fast tracking general power window to make the picker only look inside a quick mask. The studio version of Resolve also has an AI driven Magic Mask that is fast an amazing at creating tracked shapes. It is especially smart at recognizing body parts and clothing.

[Michael Gissing]

I think you are describing ripple edit behavior. On the edit page you can choose between ripple editing and non ripple where you can adjust a clip length without moving the clips before or after on the timeline. It’s such a basic aspect of editing that you will find plenty of YouTube tutorials explaining that.

[Michael Gissing]

Festivals have tech specs and standards to meet for display. You have to meet them before you will get a technical acceptance. Beyond that, the image quality is an issue for the lenses, lighting, cameras, camera movement/operation and codecs used to capture, edit and grade the final. So there are both technical expectations and also subjective judgement to define acceptable quality.

We can only really help with tech specs as we can’t see what you are watching to make any subjective judgement.

[Michael Gissing]

The png’s you uploaded are different size and pixel aspect, neither of them a typical standard. Without knowing where and how these images were created and where and how you are monitoring anything, I can’t offer any suggestions as the problem may be a monitoring issue, a render setting or a system/ timeline setting.

To identify a problem, it is vital to know timeline settings, system color management settings and how and where you are monitoring differences and then creating the images you uploaded to show the difference.

[Michael Gissing]

I use png often. I prefer it especially if I need something with alpha. I do not have the same issue as I expect someone supplying the image files of any format to set the correct color space. There will always be a slight issue converting between color space and with how Rec 709 or Rec 2020 can display an image. But there is a burden of responsibility if a graphic designer or photgrapher is creating an image that they embed the correct sRGB flag if it is for use on computer screens or video timelines & screens.

I’ve also had to inform galleries that color correct display is also display depended and also player software dependent. The number of times I have had to remind clients that making it look right with Quicktime player on their laptop is their problem ,not mine, as I have no control over their particular settings and also if using QuickTime player, then all bets are off. If it is VLC then I have more trust that it can get close.

I do have Affinity on hand to send a problem image to be properly scaled, cleaned and CST’d and I almost always output as a png as it just works for me without jpg compression loss